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wilbar
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31-10-2010, 06:59 AM
Moon's Mum ~ fantastic results, many congrats on your patience & hard work with Cain (& all the help & support you've had from Dogsey folk ). You must be so chuffed!

I think if had been me I would have been very tempted to let him off lead for a bit with Kia.

I do wonder if it's the increasing interactions with other dogs that Cain finds mentally stimulating (& therefore more tiring) so he's zonked out afterwards & walks nicely on the lead?

Do you use a longline? Might be worth a try as the next step to letting him off lead?
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Moon's Mum
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31-10-2010, 09:11 AM
Thanks Wilbar, I would have happily trusted him to let him off the lead to play with Kia once he's calmed down a bit, but not in the park we were in. Richmond Park is a very large but popular London Park. It has a busy main road running through it in a loop, loads if cyclists, many dig walkers with almost all dogs off lead, horses and worst of all wild deer who are in rut (I.e. Angry stags!). Just too many variable for me to control and I couldn't honestly say that Id trust Cain not to leg it if he saw something worth chasing!

I have tried a long line but Cain loves to roll in long grass and we get in such a tangle all of the time, it's a disaster! I was using the long line but am trying the extending lead for now which seems to be working better for the King of Tangles they are both the same length any way, the retraction of the lead just means there are less loops for Cain's legs to get caught in.

As for him walking nicely home, oh yes, it was absolutely influenced by the excitment and length of walk. However I have walked this route a number of times and he gas still managed to find the energy to pull me home!!! So even though he was tired, we have had a number of mini break throughs on the nice lead walking front this week, even coming home from shorter walks. Something has definately clicked, he's really bad for the first 10-15 mins but then does calm down a bit and is much better on the way home, even if the walk has only been an hour.

If I could have got him and Kia in a quite or secure paddock I would have definately let him off, I trusted them together. I have been meeting up with Krlyr and her rottie X Kiki about once a month when ai can get there and that is going well. I let him off lead with Kiki last time but it was at the end if the walk and he was so tired he just lay down I plan to let him off a little earlier next time they meet.

I am trying to work him up to being off lead but currently only in situations I can control with dogs he knows and sadly there were just too many variables yesterday
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krlyr
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31-10-2010, 04:37 PM
Lovely photos of Cain and Kia, well done Kiki can't really complain, afterall she is co-habiting with Casper
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Moon's Mum
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02-11-2010, 06:55 PM
I feel like I'm hogging this thread but I just have things I want to share and feel this is probably the best thread.

Anyway, just took Cain on his first walk in the dark. When we got him in late Feb the evenings were still dark. Cain was fear reactive in general, but far worse in the dark. He was aware of everything and would lunge and bark at anyone walking by, it was a nightmare. I have been avoiding taking him out in the dark and was dreading the clocks going back.

Well we just got back from our first walk in the dark and it went surprisingly well. I was planning to take him to a quiet empty park as my local dog park gets very busy and I thought it would be too hard to see dogs and people coming. But as we walked past our busy dog park I saw one of his doggy friends who we only bump into occassionally, so I decided to risk it and go in.

Cain met a played with Troy the Hungarian Visla and Daisy the black lab, he was totally over excited but in a good way, lots of play bows. He also met and greeted their owners and let them pet him. I had no idea how he would be with dogs and people in the dark but he coped really well. We walked together for about half an hour, I then took him for some street walking and he didn't lunge or react to anyone

Looks like his confidence has grown a lot since Feb and we may just survive the winter nights
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Helena54
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02-11-2010, 08:35 PM
Well done again Moon's Mum you and Cain are coming on in leaps and bounds, but I won't let you hog this thread, coz I have a little brag of my own tonight!!!

Met up with a man with a whippet/saluki cross tonight and a greyhound/lurcher cross. The whippet was a year old and was very friendly, so I let Zena offlead whilst we were standing there chatting. Zena then went to say hello to the 6yr old greyhoundx and it snapped at her, BUT, for the first time ever, instead of having a go back at it, she just walked away and ran off to play with the whippet!!! Result!!! She's learning to ignore the dogs who don't like her methinks instead of retaliating and telling them off big-time! She had a great time running with this whippet thing, they were side by side, hurfing back up to us, but then the whippet shot across the front of her and tripped her up, but he didn't hurt her,she was fine. When they finally settled back with us still chatting, Zena just kept away from the older dog, but he didn't go for her again, they just stayed in their own space.

Oh long may this continue!
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Moon's Mum
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03-11-2010, 07:25 AM
Well done Zena, that's real progress I remember your thread from about 6 months back when Zena was determined to tell off all the rude dogs she met (quite rightly to I think ), but it's great that she's now learning to ignore some. I think it shows that she's really starting to mature. It's a good attitude to have "sod you grumpy, I'm off to play with the nice dog" . Maybe she could come and give Cain a lesson in doggy manners
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Kerryowner
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04-11-2010, 07:38 PM
Oh well done!

Cherry met someone with 2 little Pugs yesterday and she was mingling quite happily. Oh how I wish everyone had little tiny dogs!! She also met the winter dog walkers again for the first time recently since last winter and she happily rubbed noses with a Collie she remembered from last year.

Not much to write home about you may think but if you knew how she used to hate Collies!
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Helena54
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04-11-2010, 08:06 PM
I had the same here, and I probably still have if the truth's know, i.e. Zena doesn't like collies! I wonder if it's because of the fact that some of them want to herd ours and they take offence to it perhaps? It's the ones who come towards us and do that stalking bit, it sets her right off, so I always,l always put her onlead. Plus the ones that chase us on the bike of course, I'd forgotten that one! Lol!

Thanks Moons Mum for the encouragement there!!xx
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Moon's Mum
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15-11-2010, 01:48 PM
A bit more good news here Cain has had a few good days.
On Saturday he had some "off lead" time in some fields with Krlyr's dog Kiki. He was on a long line but I dropped the end and let him run free. He's never been off lead like this before, especially not around another dog nor in an area larger than a small secure London park. He was very well behaved, they played a bit and he only jumped on her too hard once and took the correction with objecting...maybe a bit of a sulk though Plus his recall wasn't half bad, at least I didn't lose him for more than a few seconds at a time Photos of them together in the Dog Pictures section.

And I just let him off lead for the first time around a total stranger. I got to the only park I can let him off in when it's empty. There were no dogs but a 13 year old boy playing basketball alone on the court. The court is surrounded by fence on 3 sides but one side has fallen down so the dogs cam run in there. Normally this means I have kept him on lead as I only let him off when we're totally alone.

However I walked Cain close to the boy and Cain just ignored him and didn't react at all. I thought about asking the boy to greet him but I figured "no, he has to learn that he can't always greet strangers in the park first, sometimes he just has to ignore them". I explained to the boy that I was letting my dog off lead and he was wary of strangers. I told him not to worry and that I'd keep Cain away with his ball but if he was to leave the court just to shout so I could put Cain back on lead first. The kid was fine about it.

I took Cain a bit away and threw his fab squeaky ball. I managed to get a sort of rely fetch going by throwing his fav ball, squeaking his 2nd fav ball to recall him then throwing the 2nd ball in exchange. It worked really well, he got a really good run session and he can back every time! I had his total focus which felt really good that he would ignore a stranger and play with me instead It was a big step. Thanked the kid and left. Then on the way back two dogs bolted out of the estate and surrounded Cain, scared to hell out of me!!!! Luckily I recognised one dog, we had met only a few times a long time ago but I knew he was friendly. Despite being startled, Cain was very calm and controlled, sniffed them and even gave a friendly bounce, then the owners called the dogs back. I was relieved as I had expected him to freak out as it must have scared him as it was so unexpected.

So that off lead with one dog and then one stranger in three days Still a long way off being let off lead in the park like a normal dog, still have to be very careful to pick the situations but it feels very satisfying to know that bit by bit he's able to earn his freedom and I always feel much better after he's had a good run. He's happy and sleeping now.

How is everyone else getting on?
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Helena54
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15-11-2010, 05:14 PM
Sounds like Cain is really improving, well done you!

It's all gone downhill here I'm afraid I met those two saluki cross and greyhound cross again last Friday morning, and Zena couldn't wait to meet up with her new found friend as they came towards me, so I let her go up to them, thinking the greyhoundx would be ok with her after it had snapped at her and she ignored it, but no, it snapped at her again, so she went to tell it off, fell over, got up and really laid into it with lots of noise (NO teeth!) and got it on its back I apologised profusely to the couple, the woman was a bit ott about her "baby" as she felt along its sides which were just covered in Zena's slobber and not a mark on it!!! That's the thing with Zena, she's all noise when she does this, but it's very scarey! Anyway, all the time we were chatting and this woman was cuddling her poor doglet, Zena just sat there ignoring it, so I threw her ball and she then ran off and played with the other one, BUT, as they ran past the greyhoundx again, that dog leaped out at Zena to bite her as she went past so I said to the couple "you see, your dog doesn't like her it's going to have her again"!!! So who's fault is that then???!! Thankfully though, Zena was having far too much fun playing with the youngster that she ignored it this time! I dunno, it's two steps forward and one back for me atm
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